Aely Manaf has gained recognition for his exploration of facial ambiguities, skilfully manipulating fragmented forms and varied textures. This seemed to work when he won US$1,000 for the Bronze Medal in the Emerging Artist category of the UOB Painting of the Year in 2013, for his work, Exclaimation Points. This triumph was celebrated again in the UOB-ic exhibition, A Gathering of Past Winners, featuring new works of 12 winners of the prestigious competition dedicated to contemporary concerns in art or as art, at the Curate@Henry Butcher in August-September 2015. His raw sensibility and depiction of the fragile and forlorn expressions, arguably playing on positive and negative planes, are already evident when he was selected for the Young and New Part III and IV exhibitions – a platform for new voices and emerging young artists – at Hom Art Trans in 2011 and 2012 respectively.